The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Retail Tariff Tracker is an ongoing project that will evolve based on feedback received and new retail tariff data being collected.
The analysis presented in this SME Retail Tariff Tracker project report is based on retail offers available in October 2018 as well as those collected in April 2018, October 2017, April 2017 and April 2016. The consumption levels of 20,000 kilowatt hours for annual electricity consumption and 100 gigajoules for annual gas consumption used for comparing changes in annual bills in this update report reflect feedback received on the SME Retail Tariff-Tracker: Preliminary Report (October 2017) and are consistent with those used for the previous update-report. (December 2017)
Below are some key findings in this update report in regard to bills and price changes:
SME Energy Bills Price Changes
• A jurisdictional comparison of SMEs consuming 20,000 kWh per annum shows that South Australian businesses continue to have the greatest annual electricity bills ($8,230) while Tasmanian businesses have the lowest ($5,550).
• On average, nationally, annual electricity bills for SMEs with this consumption level decreased by approximately $220 or -3% between October 2017 and October 2018. The greatest decreases in annual electricity bills are in Western Australia (-13%), Queensland and Tasmania (both -5%) while businesses in Victoria and the Northern Territory received increases of 4% and 1% respectively.
• A jurisdictional comparison of SMEs consuming 100,000 MJ per annum shows that Tasmanian businesses continue have the greatest annual gas bills ($4,555) and Victorian businesses have the lowest ($2,200).
• On average, nationally, annual gas bills for SMEs with this consumption level, increased by approximately $75 or 3% between October 2017 and October 2018. Annual gas bills for SMEs with
this consumption level have increased by $235 (12%) in Victoria and $235 (5%) in Tasmania. There have been small increases to the annual gas bills in the ACT ($50 or 2%) and South Australia ($40 or 1%). In NSW and WA prices have decreased slightly (-1%) while they have remained the same in Queensland.
Additional data about prices-spreads, discounts, supply charges and network charges are included in the full report.
The full report can be read here.